08 Feb Diseases Don’t Read Books…

Stephen Drew recently received this letter from Peter Minjale in Mtunthama – it demonstrates the value of thinking ‘out of the box’ and that, truly, diseases don’t read books…

Dear Mr Drew

I write just to inform you that we have an eight years old boy in our new paediatric ward who has long standing severe malnutrition but is not responding to the therapeutic feeds which we give from our NRU.

Dr Peter Minjale

Having been on these feeds as per our malnutrition management protocol for more than two weeks this boy has failed to improve and yesterday we (as nurses, home craft workers and clinicians) discussed that there were more nutrition supplements which were not always available in the therapeutic feeds (milk) for this eight years old boy and I shared with my colleagues the good experience I had with late Lloyd Golombe, who could advise on how to come up with a good recipe of supplementary feed rich in protein and energy for children not responding to the therapeutic feeds as per our national protocol (books).

Then having discussed this issue we unanimously agreed to ask the accounts department to buy some feeds rich in the protein and energy which this boy needed.

Thanks to the accounts department for procuring the feeds we asked for this boy and today I am glad to inform you that the boy looks happy and having good appetite as we combine the therapeutic feeds and our new formulated supplementary feeds.

So I can say diseases don’t read books.

If an ailment doesn’t improve following the stipulated treatment it is better to critically think aloud.